U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulls out of team competition at Tokyo Olympics

Superstar gymnast Simone Biles, who is trying to become the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic all-around titles and also lead the U.S. women to a third straight team gold medal, shockingly was scratched from the team competition on Tuesday. According to NBC’s broadcast, U.S. coaches had said Biles’ issues were mental rather than physical.

“We’ve just been told that, with regards to Simone withdrawing, it is not injury-related. It is a mental issue that Simone is having,” NBC’s John Roethlisberger said during the broadcast.

USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body in the U.S., issued a statement via Twitter that said, “Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”

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The tweet then added, “Thinking of you, Simone!”

Biles left the competition floor with the U.S. squad’s trainer after the first of four rotations at Ariake Gymnastics Centre. When she returned, she had new tape on her right ankle. She removed her hand grips and did not take her scheduled turn on the uneven bars.

Biles, a five-time medalist at the 2016 Rio Games, had experienced problems with her vault in her warmup. Her difficulties returned when the competition began. She did a relatively simple Yurchenko vault with 1½ twists and landed in a deep crouch, almost sitting, before she took a big hop forward. After the U.S. women completed their vaults, Biles and a trainer left and went backstage.

Wearing a warmup jacket and warmup pants over her leotard, Biles returned as her teammates were warming up for the uneven bars. She hugged them and encouraged them as Jordan Chiles replaced her.

Chiles, an incoming UCLA freshman, had struggled on the uneven bars during team qualifying on Sunday but she responded well under intense pressure on Tuesday with a clean routine that got 14.166 points.

Biles, who has won more world championships medals (25) than any other gymnast, had been expected to dominate the Tokyo Games. It wasn’t immediately clear if she will be able to compete in the all-around competition on Thursday or the four event finals for which she qualified.

She recently spoke about feeling intense pressure to succeed here, and her anxiety apparently became too much for her to continue to compete.

Biles, 24, has said she is still dealing with trust issues regarding USA Gymnastics after having been sexually abused by former national team doctor Lawrence Nassar, who abused hundreds of women and girls before he was sentenced to prison.